A walk in the neighborhood – End of the Day for May 30, 2014

Sometimes you just a nice walk in the neighborhood. When you have children, you evenings get more and more constrained over time. At first you don’t want to or can’t leave the child. Then you don’t want to go out because your tired and have so much else to do. Then a time comes when the children get fairly self-sustaining. You can trust them to not burn down the house while you are gone for a few hours, so you venture out to friends or a movie perhaps. Finally, your children are out doing their own things — parties, meetings and, OMG, even dates! This is where stand right now. We find are going out more than we have in years and we are finding it quite enjoyable. It reminds us that we will be empty-nesters in just 2 more years. So, it is imperative that we remember how to live together again, just the two of us.

Tonight, we headed out to the monthly “Ladies Night Out” held in the Magnolia Park area of Burbank. There are already quite a few shops, restaurants and coffee bars in the area, but these events add 5 or 6 areas with live music and about 20 food trucks scattered throughout the 6 block area. Joseph’s girlfriend lives in the neighborhood, so it became an easy “date” for them. We decided to tag along this evening, but assiduously maintained our distance and schedule. We passed them several times on what ended up being our 3 mile walk, but let them have their space and dinner together.

Olive oil

There is something special about closing out an evening — watching the sun slowly set into the west and the evening gather — while surrounded by interesting sights, sounds and smells. We also got to hit up our favorite Italian market, Monte Carlo Deli, which holds the small treats that remind of us our trips to Sicily and our family there. There are these little cookies by Balocco that we had each morning with our breakfast “cafe”, all sorts of pasta and another bottle of Marsala wine for making our new found recipe of Chicken Marsala. It was great to have several reasons to visit the neighborhood and have and “adult” evening to ourselves.

Balocco cookies

When you get to be our age, you have to remember what it was like to be a young couple, unencumbered by mortgages, children and other burdens. It is a bit like learning how to be a couple all over again. There is a familiarity there, but spending time alone with each other allows you to reconnect to the essence of what brought you together in the first place. We both think this is so important as we settle into this next era of “coupledom” again!

Previously on End of the Day: